This month, on The Conscious Adventurer, we look at Perinatal Mental Health & Complications in Pregnancy. My aim is bring awareness, words, and compassion to this under recognized area, and to acknowledge that pregnancy, childbirth, and beyond, do not always go according to plan, nor according to how things might be depicted in the messages around us.

Internal and External Environments have been the focus on The Conscious Adventurer. To round the month off, it’s my great pleasure to share a guest post about creating a calming environment by Chantal Bernard.

Chantal has a passion for spreading awareness and sharing information about essential oils, mental health and chronic illness on her blog Painted Teacup! When she isn’t blogging Chantal enjoys spending time with her husband and their fur-baby, working as a social worker and helping her husband with the family virtual assistant business! Check out Painted Teacup and take a minute to follow Chantal on Pinterest & Facebook! Over to Chantal:

There are SO many ways to use essential oils however one of my favourite it to use essential oils to help create a calming and relaxing atmosphere! My favourite way to use essential oils for calming & relaxation is to use them aromatically in my diffuser (as opposed to topical application on your skin).

Today I want to share some of my favourite essential oils to use to create a calming environment and explain how to use them in a diffuser.

My 3 Favourite Essential Oils for Relaxation:

Lavender Essential Oil

Lavender has wonderful calming and relaxing properties! If you are just getting started with essential oils, lavender is a great one to start out with as it is also helpful in soothing upset stomachs, soothing skin irritations, promoting a restful night’s sleep and of course helping with relaxation!

Eucalyptus Essential Oil

The scent of eucalyptus is often associated with spas because of its relaxing properties! In addition to helping with relaxation, eucalyptus also helps to promote clear breathing which is an awesome combination after a long and stressful day! Check out all the ways to use eucalyptus essential oil here!

Please note that diffusers hold different amounts of water depending on their size so you may need to adjust this blend for your diffuser.

How to Make This Blend:

First, remove the top of the diffuser and add water up to the fill line (or 100ml). It is usually recommended that you use room temperature water but be sure to read the directions specific to your diffuser. Next add 3 drops of cedarwood and 3 drops of lavender. Put the top back on the diffuser and turn it on! Now you can sit back & relax… and drift off into dreamland!

How to Use Essential Oils for Relaxation

Although you can apply essential oils to your skin, I prefer to use them aromatically (in a diffuser) for calming & relaxation! There are so many benefits of using an essential oil diffuser! The first benefit is that you only need a few drops of essential oil (usually 3-4) at a time. Using a diffuser means that anyone in the area/room will also benefit from the calming properties (or other feelings depending on the oil used) of the essential oil! If you are just starting out, you can find helpful tips for shopping for the right diffuser here. When using individual essential oils for relaxation simply follow the same directions I provided above for the diffuser blend!

I hope this post helped you to get started using essential oils to create a calming environment in your home!

To learn more about how to use essential oils, sign up to join my FREE 5 day email course which will teach you how to start using essential oils in 5 days! JOIN HERE!

This month, on the Conscious Adventurer, we’re talking about Internal and External Environments. One of my readers asked about tips for dealing with self-centred people.

It’s my absolute pleasure to have this guest post by Simone Wittmann about this topic. Simone is the creator of happyhealthylove.de and provides simple but effective fitness, health and lifestyle tips to help you live a happier, healthier and more balanced life. She’s also a real kitchen girl and likes to share new vegetarian and vegan recipes with you. As a psychology student, she’s all about developing self-love, understanding other and helping you become the best version of yourself. If you’re curious, check out her blog and don’t forget to download her free, printable goal-setting guide!

I guess all of you know people who always make you feel negative and unmotivated, even if you are just talking to them about the weather. That person doesn’t necessarily have to be your boss, sometimes even the people that are close to you, your friends or family members can be one of them. You’re in a great mood, happy, positive and motivated and the moment you talk to them, you suddenly feel like something is weighing you down and making you feel uncomfortable. Those people can change your mood within a minute, am I right?!

I’ve met a lot of those people over the last few years, and I have finally found a way, how to deal with those negative, difficult people and what you can do to stay happy and positive!

Understand why they are being the way they are. Some reasons could include:

Depression – Everything is going wrong, you’re failing at everything, thoughts rapidly become negative, and coupled with stress, you can become extremely negative, and destructive.

Limited beliefs, pessimists – This and that won’t work, you don’t even need to try it.

Victim role – “It never worked for me”; They will always think just because they didn’t achieve xyz, you can’t be successful.

Close minded people – certain beliefs -They think women have to stay at home and look after the kids, no sex before marriage – they want you to be/act “the way you are supposed” to be/act and they don’t accept your behaviour.

Drama – Some people just like to have dramatic lives.

Don’t just get rid of them

It’s so easy to say, ‘just get rid of them, surround yourself with positive people”, and to be honest, that is great advice, when you talk about ‘friends’ or people that you don’t need to have in your life. We all have friends – and ”friends”. Of course, you can choose not to spend your precious time with the people who make you feel unmotivated and uncomfortable. But often you can’t choose if you want to be surrounded by those people, your boss or co-workers, for example – plus, there are always going to be people who comment about you and getting rid of all of them would be impossible.

See it as an opportunity to develope your character

Use that negative energy and ask yourself these following questions.

Am I in command of my emotions?

Can I stay focused and positive?

Am I focusing on what’s wrong with this person?

Is that person’s behaviour affecting my emotions?

By focusing on the negative aspects, you let them win. Try and challenge yourself to work on your character.

Empathize

Whenever you are dealing with difficult people, try and remind yourself that you’ve been rude to other people too. Even if we are trying really hard to be kind, loving souls, we all have been rude. It’s normal that we’re in a bad mood sometimes and that we act in a way that we normally wouldn’t. Wonder what happened! You don’t know their struggles and stories. Be understanding and supportive, you never know what’s going on in their lives. Learn to use it as something that helps you improve your people skills.

Ignore all the negative commentsWhen someone is talking to you in a rude way, give a simple, neutral “I see” or “Ok” reply. Don’t let it get to you! Don’t let them win! On the other hand, when the person is being positive, reply in a positive and enthusiastic way. That way you show them, that a negative attitude won’t impress you, but a positive attitude is going to be rewarded.

A big thank you to Kumari for giving me the opportunity to blog here, I enjoyed writing it. If you liked this post, feel free to check out my blog for more. www.happyhealthylove.de

My hugest thanks to the wonderful Simone for this guest blog post. What strategies do you apply when dealing with difficult people? How do you ignore negative comments? We would love to hear from you in the comments below.

*Authors opinions are their own and do not reflect on any organisations or affiliations.

I talked about the psychological soil that goes into developing us. If we think about our beliefs as a tree with the beliefs as tree trunks, the soil that grows those beliefs is our experiences. We learn not only from what was told to us, but also what we felt and observed. So, when we observed how important women in our lives were spoken to or treated, that gives us a template for how women are treated. We also learn by what wasn’t done as well as what was done. When we were hurt or scolded for being a particular way, we learn a rule “it’s bad to be that way”. When praise is omitted or affection withheld, we learn another rule – I am not worthy of love. These experiences are incredibly powerful.

Our current experiences also matter though – like a tree, we are constantly growing. Those in our environment now can really nourish the soil of our growth or not. So, my invitation to you is to consider your beliefs about yourself and where they come from. Looking at those beliefs that no longer serve you, where did those come from? Also, are there people in your current environment who nourish you or who aid in these negative beliefs?

The visualisation I did on the show was about tuning into that younger hurting part of ourselves and sending messages of love and affection; holding that part in gentleness.